Apparently, Bryce Dallas Howard, daughter of director Ron Howard, was always the first choice to play villainous vampire Victoria in the original Twilight movie, according to director Catherine Hardwicke. The actress recently joined the cast of the franchise’s third installment, Eclipse, taking over from Rachelle Lefevre, who stars in as the bad vamp Victoria in Twilight and the upcoming sequel New Moon.

Twilight director Hardwicke admits Dallas Howard was always producers’ top pick but says star initially rejected the part. She says, “I know we originally asked BDH (Bryce Dallas Howard) to do the first movie but she thought it was too small a part at that time.”

Hardwicke admits she sympathizes with Lefevre, who was dropped from the picture after a dispute over scheduling with another movie role, but insists she only knows about what has been reported in the media since she was sidelined in favor of Chris Weitz to direct the sequels. She adds, “Of course I cast (Lefevre), so I wish (producers at Summit Entertainment) could have worked out something. I wasn’t involved in the negotiations, so I don’t know the details.”

Lefevre is now preparing to take her former studio bosses to court over her axe from the money-spinning franchise.

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart have been seen hanging out together in Los Angeles several times in the past week. On Thursday, they went with Pattinson’s friend Marcus Foster to Bobby Long’s concert at Hotel Cafe and went unnoticed by fans. “Robert was super low-key when he walked in,” an onlooker told people.com. When Long, who’s also a friend of Pattinson’s, finished his set, the trio quickly left the club and jumped into a cab. Then on Friday, Pattinson and Stewart returned to Hotel Cafe to watch Foster perform. “Kristen and Rob, just the two of them, came in and walked towards the curtained-off area on stage where they watched Marcus,” says a source. “They seemed to go unnoticed.” After the show, the two went with a group of friends to Chateau Marmont. The co-stars are rumored to have begun dating during filming of The Twilight Saga: New Moon, but have managed to keep their relationship under wraps for several months. A source said: “Word on the set of Twilight is that [Michael] Angarano, [Kristen’s boyfriend], and she are completely broken up. While people don’t want to talk about it, everyone is pretty convinced that Pattinson and Stewart are hooking up.” The two have since flown to Vancouver to begin filming Eclipse, the third movie in the series.